


I Know That You'll Be By My Side

by Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492



Series: Access Animus...Begin Regression [6]
Category: Assassin's Creed (2016) - Fandom, Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Bleeding Effect, F/M, Friendship, Hints at relationships but this is mainly friendship, Neurological Splits, Other, Regressions, Templar and Assassin Friendships, The Abstergo Foundation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-21 23:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11368071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492/pseuds/Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492
Summary: A look into Moussa, Lara, and Callum's experience with Sophia Rikkin, and how they all learned that friendship was sometimes what you need.





	I Know That You'll Be By My Side

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the song, Heat of the Moment, that appeared in the trailer for Assassins Creed Syndicate.

Moussa had never had any friends,  _true_ friends, the kind that would always have your back no matter what. He had associates  _sure_ , people who he mingled with at the local bar, but when he had cleaned up his life he lost them. No matter if they would have stabbed him in the back it was still a blow to him. Then Abstergo had taken him, killing the one who had made Moussa go clean from all of the violence that he had been apart of, and he hadn't been clean long enough to make any  _new_ friends.

Here at the Abstergo Foundation in Madrid he had gone back to making those same mistakes. Trusting people that he shouldn't and for a time he had grown a bond with Sophia Rikkin. 

To him, she was offering him everything that he had lost back.  _Even better_ she was offering a new one. A perfect clean slate that he could build from in a new world. A world that Sophia spoke of as if it was glitter and it was gold. 

To her, he was the ideal image of a test subject. Compliant to her wishes, a partner by her side, that was willing to go into the Animus. However, the very thing that he was willing to do had affected him. His ancestor whispered things to him, showed him memories that he had yet to go through, making him  _feel_ emotions that were not entirely his. 

Eventually it ate away at him until he couldn't tell what was  _Moussa_ from what was  _Baptiste_. He could try to remember where he got that skill from or how he knew that language, but he could never truly remember. Never truly seperate what was what. 

Then Sophia placed him within the Commons; an area that had once been forbidden for him to access. That was when he broke away from her. After seeing all of the other test subjects and because of that a guilt had formed. He stayed away from the others for weeks until one approaches him.  _Lin._ A Chinese woman who was taken by Abstergo from her job as a defense agent for the Chinese government. A woman whose ancestor was older than Baptiste by over two centuries. 

 _That_ had grabbed Baptiste attention. 

Of course, Jun was rather protective of Lin, and it didn't take long for him Moussa to learn this. 

Their friendship, although _unsteady,_ was  _something_ , and for the first time in so long he had a true friend. Lin would eat with him, walk with him within the halls of Abstergo, which lead to Moussa teaching her how to play cards with a black deck that he had been given by Sophia. In return, Lin would take him to a training ground that Abstergo had set up near the commons. Where Lin would practice ribbon dancing with another fellow inmate.  _That_ was when he met Valéria; a french woman who had an ancestor that was older than Shao Jun. A Spanish-Arabic woman named Maria, who had fought and assassinated in the Inquisition. She would speak more than Lin, but it was interesting to see Lin open up more in this enviroment.

Then Emir had joined them with Nathan not far behind and in that moment-

In that moment, Moussa had gained another friend.

And in that moment, he learned that Baptiste was studying everyone, searching for  _talent_ , a trait of survival that he was determined to pass on to Moussa.

 

_'Find ones that will be useful for us.'_

_'Then we can escape before Sophia sees all of the memories. Before she kills us.'_

It was all apart of the plan, but at some point useful assets had become something more.

* * *

* * *

 Lara had an odd relationship with the Rikkins to say the least. 

Alan Rikkin had taken a shine to her mother and herself, adopting them into his family as daughters that he wasn't able to have. Offering them a family were they didn't have one. Brought upon by the talent that he was sure that they possessed. Her mother, Valéria, seemed to be proof enough with her past job description as a Prime Minister.

Lara didn't really care though. He had never treated them badly, and he had been more than willing to offer them artifacts that had once belonged to their ancestors.

Then there had been Sophia Rikkin, Alan's eldest child and only daughter. The one leading this Abstergo Project, the designer of the Animus, a scientist that was determined to cure the worls of violence. Sophia had taken a different shine to them. Sharing a close bond with Valéria, holding a bond with herself, and for a time Lara couldn't see Sophia being a bad person. She was Sophie, the woman who she teased about marrying her mother, and having vacations in Russia after the world has frozen over.

Then Maria killed herself during the Regression.

Then, Lara finally met Jason Rikkin and she  _remembered him._

Then Sophia had placed her within the Animus, and Lara finally saw the Bleeding Effect as more than prose colored words.

Jason joined her, showing a side to the Rikkins that she had never seen because none of this involved his own free will. Though once you enter a regression none of that seems to matter.

She was no longer Lara, she was  _Evie Frye_ , and Jason Rikkin was  _Jacob Frye_ , and nothing else seemed to make sense.

They went through memories at a fast pace. Spending hours and days within the Animus before they brought in the descendant of Henry Green. An older woman who had been living in California, knowing nothing of what was happening to her, but Lara  _knew_ and Jason  _knew_ and Jacob and Evie finally had Mr. Green back. Things were  _in place,_ but the descendant of Henry Green wasn't synchronizing as she should have been. She couldn't match their rates at synchronization, falling out of the memories, until one day her body simply couldn't take it anymore. Fluid had begun to fill her brain during a regression, causing her brain to swell until she died with her body still attatched to the Animus.

Sophia wouldn't tell them anything about what had happened to the body and after that they were not placed within the Animus until Sophia needed the memories involving the Autumn of Terror. Because that was all she cared about,  _the memories._

Spanish-Moor Assassins, French Rite Templars, Victorian Assassins. 

Her ancestors,  _her memories,_ but at least she wasn't alone. She wasn't the only one from that bloodline like most are. 

Lara has her mother and she has Jacob. She has Moussa and Lin, and Nathan and Emir. She has  _Evie._

She just has to promise herself that she'll be fine and she will be. 

* * *

* * *

 Everyone was crazy within Sophia Rikkin's Animus Program. 

Though, Cal has to suppose that they are not alone. His own mental state was questionable enough and perhaps that is why he clings to Sophia. To the promise that she has made to him. Even if _he knows_ that she is manipulating him behind her smile and visions of the future. Cal can see right past it and  _Aguilar wants no part in it._

His ancestor, _who he once was,_ had expressed his distaste in the woman. She reminded him of Torquemada in her speechs and according to Aguilar, they have  _'better things to be doing'._

It doesn't take much for Callum to figure that out. That Aguilar  _wants_ Maria and he  _wants_ to be apart of a Brotherhood and the only way he can get that again is through  _him._ Although it could be much worse. Aguilar could be fighting him at every chance that he gets. Luckily the Spaniard finally stopped, leading to Callum finally being able to speak with the other inmates. 

Moussa had given a wicked grin upon seeing him, a knowing look in his eyes, and for once it was a refreshing sight. Nathan was still an aggressive asshole though and if it wasn't for Emir keeping his hand upon the brits shoulder he would surely be attacking by now.

Lin was sitting beside where Moussa had been keeping a steady gaze on him.

Jason was smiling though, giving him this  _'I told you so, Callie'_ look that could only match up to the observing gaze of Lara. That only left Valéria, and  _Maria_ seemed rather unsure about him. All of it being the consequence of him being rather close to the woman that had put all of them here.

 

"I want to join all of you with whatever  _this_ is..." Callum trailed off, feeling as if he should truly punch Aguilar for making him do this.

"About damn time, Pioneer.  _About damn time."_


End file.
